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Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Old New York: At the Oyster Bar, You Can Summer Like It's 1959

By Mitch Broder

To grab your last taste of August, set sail for the Oyster Bar, the only Midtown restaurant that wants to make you feel like you're at sea.

This is not the big, century-old Grand Central Oyster Bar. It's the little, half-century-old, theater-district Famous Oyster Bar. Aside from their name, the two restaurants have only as much connection as all the restaurants in New York City that have a sign that says "Pizza."

Unlike the Grand Central Oyster Bar, the Famous Oyster Bar has a ship, an ocean mural, and seashells on the ceiling. It opened in 1959, and back then you needed a ship, a mural, and seashells in order to operate a seafood restaurant.

But the Oyster Bar recently got a slick new bar, which makes me fear for the future of the ship, the mural, and the shells. If you want to see them, I'd get sailing. The place has a delicious crab cake. It made me forget about the new bar, which was making me crabby.

Anchor yourself at the Oyster Bar, 842 Seventh Avenue, at 54th Street, in New York City.

5 comments:

Always a good line(s) to brighten a crabby day. (If you want to see them, I'd get sailing. The place has a delicious crab cake. It made me forget about the new bar, which was making me crabby.)More, more, more! (I may actually have to visit the city again.)

New York Chronicles

About Me

For twenty years, I wrote about New York for the nation's largest newspaper chain. Now I write about New York for the nation's largest Internet. I do this because I love to explore the city and to share what I've found, except when I'm greedy about it and decide to keep it to myself.
"Vintage," of course, means old, but it also means timeless. It's my defense for covering new things that evoke old New York spirit. But I mostly cover the best places that take you back in time, whether you are revisiting a time or just now discovering it.
On the street I still feel like a tourist, and I tend to look like one, too. These are perhaps my greatest qualifications. Among my others are some of the top prizes in New York City journalism, which nobody really cares about because they're not a Pulitzer.